Cult Leader.

Carefully executed chaos.

When you sit down and spin a Cult Leader record, you are opening the lid on a cathartic frenzy of bewildering riffs and battering drums. It's all you can do to grit your teeth and weather the storm. At the heart of this, however, echoes the soul of loneliness, the coldness of a silent hall.

Photo: Chad Kelco

Cult Leader formed out of the ashes of post hardcore act Gaza and cemented their signature sound on debut release 'Nothing For Us Here'. The Deathwish touch is all over these guys and it shows especially on 'A Patient Man'. Anthony Luceros vocals are like bathing in razors, the agony clear in his delivery. 'I Am Healed' kicks the album off with Michael Mason's smash attack guitar style, we grin every time that riff kicks in!

'To:Achlys' is a track that deals in depression and sadness, a lightless walk (ahem) through a cold landscape of shadow, a baritone vocal set against an echo of picked strings and funeral drums. It's a grim procession, the bass really thumping in your chest.

Cult Leader have taken the essentials from metal and hardcore and made something altogether visceral yet harmonious, the lurch from shattering downpour to a frozen mood setting them aside from their contemporaries, it feels honest and not forced. If you've yet to get into these guys but you like The Secret, Trap Them or Gaza, you are absolutely missing out!